Board-Stacking Header for Tight Z-Height Budgets
The Hirose DF37B-24DP-0.4V(53) is a 24-position, 2-row header from the DF37 series, designed for parallel board-to-board stacking where vertical clearance is at a premium. It uses outer shroud contacts to protect the signal pins during mating and provides a mated stacking height of 0.98mm, with the header itself standing 0.030" (0.75mm) above the board surface.
This 24-position variant sits between the 20-position DF37B-20DP-0.4V(53) and the 30-position DF37B-30DP-0.4V(51) and DF37B-30DP-0.4V(53) in the same DF37 series. All share the identical 0.016" (0.40mm) pitch, 0.030" (0.75mm) height above board, gold contact finish, and solder retention feature. The choice between them is driven purely by the circuit count required on the BOM — no footprint or stack height differences to reconcile.
The contacts carry 2.00µin (0.051µm) of gold plating. This is a thin flash finish — adequate for the low mating-cycle duty typical of internal board-to-board connections in consumer devices, but not intended for frequent field-service disconnect cycles. The gold layer prevents oxidation during storage and initial mating, while the underlying base metal handles the mechanical wear. For applications requiring hundreds of mating cycles, a thicker gold option in the DF37 family would be the better fit.
SMT Assembly and Solder Retention
Surface-mount termination with the solder retention feature means the header stays put during reflow without shifting. The retention tabs on the body provide a mechanical anchor to the PCB pads, reducing tombstoning and improving coplanarity across all 24 contacts. This is a practical advantage for high-volume pick-and-place lines where positional accuracy during solder paste reflow determines first-pass yield.